Radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant to be dumped into Pacific

Most of the radioactive contamination would be removed before it enters the Pacific, Japanese officials said.

Kim Kyung-Hoon: Reuters

The head of Japan's nuclear watchdog has flagged dumping radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific, but says the level of contamination in the water would be well within legal limits.

Speaking to foreign reporters in Tokyo, the head of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, Shinichi Tanaka, said there may be no choice but to pump radioactive water from Fukushima into the sea.

"I'm afraid that it is unavoidable to dump or release the water into the sea," he said.

But Mr Tanaka says most of the contamination would be removed first, meaning the radiation level in the water would be well below the legal limit.

There is more than 300,000 tonnes of contaminated water being stored at the Fukushima plant, with hundreds of tonnes being added to that every day.

Charges against former PM dropped: reports

Newspaper Sankei Shimbun reported on Monday that prosecutors had decided to drop criminal charges against former prime minister Naoto Kan, government officials and TEPCO executives over their roles in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

Prosecutors had examined the case after local residents filed criminal complaints, but could not find enough evidence to show negligence of duty, the daily said, adding that the decision may be announced later this week.

Meanwhile, workers began switching off one of Japan's two working reactors on Monday, with the other set for shutdown later this month and no restarts in sight.

Kansai Electric Power had started reducing generating power at its Unit Number 3 at the Oi plant in the western prefecture of Fukui, a company spokesman said.

He said the reactor will be fully shut down by early Tuesday in readiness for inspections legally mandated within 13 months of the start of commercial operations.

The reactor is one of the only two still generating power in Japan. The other one, Unit Number 4 at Oi, is to be switched off on September 15.

Japan has turned to pricey fossil-fuel alternatives to fill the gap left by the shutdown of atomic plants, which had supplied about one-third of the resource-poor nation's electricity before the disaster.